Facebook has decreased the organic reach for your business page’s posts. This means the people who like your business page (your audience) are not seeing your posts on their newsfeed as often as you may think. As a result many businesses are now paying for advertising to ensure their audience sees their Facebook posts.

There are two advertising options available: Facebook boost posts and Facebook newsfeed ads.

FACEBOOK BOOSTFacebook boost posts allows you to take an already published post and pay to ensure your audience, their friends or a specific target group receives the post on their newsfeed.

Facebook boost posts are easy to administer, which explains why this has become a popular tool for many businesses advertising on their own. One thing to note about Facebook boost posts is that it does limit targeting and budget options. If you are trying to reach people outside your page’s network, Facebook boost posts only allows you to target by location, age, gender and broad interest. This can be troublesome because you ultimately will be paying for clicks by people who may have no interest in your product or business. Facebook boost posts also limit the duration of your post to a maximum of seven days.

Here are a few best practices for implementing Facebook boost post advertising:

Never boost content that directs your audience to someone else’s website. You want to pay to increase your own traffic, not others.

Don’t boost every post, but only the most relevant to your audience. It helps to see what post is getting the most organic engagement. That way you know it will get the engagement you are looking for when you boost it.

Think before adding friends of your audience as a target. Are they really your target audience? You don’t want to promote a post and risk paying for clicks from people who are not going to participate or purchase your products.

FACEBOOK NEWSFEED ADSFacebook newsfeed ads provide more targeting and budget options. Not only can you target by location, age, gender and broad interest, but you can also administer advanced targeting; you can even narrow down and promote to people who like your competitor pages.

There’s no limit to how long you can promote your ad; you can set either a lifetime budget or a daily budget. This allows you to have more control as to the audience that will be seeing your ad. This can also help maximize your advertising dollars by reaching the people who are interested in your product or business, which leads to higher conversion rates.

Facebook newsfeed ads do require a more lengthy setup process, but in return, it can give you a more controlled outcome. Facebook newsfeed ads are best for promoting an event, product or sale that you want to reach the maximum amount of people and have a steady presence among the targeted audience.

Here are a pair of best practices for implementing Facebook newsfeed advertising:

Be concise. The image you use in your ad cannot include more than 20% text. So, make sure the image grabs the audience’s attention and use the headline and copy to explain the offer/call-to-action.

Understand your audience. This tool allows you to really narrow down a target to maximize advertising dollars. The more clear your targeting, the better the results.

When planning and executing an advertising plan, it’s important to first make sure you understand your objectives. Are you are looking to inform or is there a specific action you want your audience to take? Facebook newsfeed advertising is the best Facebook tool for any objective because it provides more control of your targeting and, in turn, the cost.